Chapter 417

"Reporting to the Lord, Commandant Mu has arrived!"

"Let him in."

Xia Hong, who was lowering his head in thought, was interrupted by the voice of the guard outside the hall. Hearing that Mu Dong had arrived, he immediately showed a smile and said to Xia Chuan, "You only returned the day before yesterday, so you probably don't know yet. Recently, the Craftsman Department has produced quite a few good things. Stay and take a look together!"

Upon hearing this, Xia Chuan immediately realized that it must be the batch of treasures Xia Hong harvested from the Flood Dragon Nest in mid-September that had finally borne fruit.

As he expected, Mu Dong did not come alone; he brought five people behind him, all of whom were holding items.

"Mu Dong, pays respects to the Lord, pays respects to the Commandant!"

"No need for formalities. You look so excited; it seems you really have had quite a harvest recently. Don't keep me in suspense, just tell me directly!"

Xia Hong's expression was also slightly excited. He had been staying in the Star-Plucking Hall to cultivate recently. When he heard Han Yue report during the day that Mu Dong requested an audience, he already had some guesses in his heart.

Before nightfall, he had sent someone to notify Mu Dong to prepare for an audience. However, it happened to coincide with Xia Chuan coming to report on the seven people including Chu Yan'er. Realizing that Chu Yan'er had quietly infiltrated the inner city and even entered Yuan Cheng's home, he had temporarily taken Xia Chuan to check on that first.

He was also curious about how many surprises that pile of things from the Flood Dragon Nest could bring.

"The 24 types of spiritual plants in the Flood Dragon Nest, after identification by the Medicine Cauldron, have been directly synthesized into 13 new pill formulas. Commandants Cheng Feng and Bai Dongying have both been busy at the He Yin station recently transplanting those spiritual plants and couldn't get away, so they could only entrust this subordinate to offer the pills to the Lord on their behalf..."

Being able to represent the Harvesting Department to offer pills, Mu Dong was clearly very spirited. After finishing, he paused for a moment, then turned and opened the tray held by the first person behind him.

There were four small porcelain bottles of different colors in that tray. Mu Dong opened them one by one and introduced them to Xia Hong in a continuous stream:

"Among the 13 pill formulas, the most useful are these four.

The first is the Flood Dragon Transformation Pill, with Flood Dragon blood as the main ingredient, supplemented by 26 types of precious spiritual plants; it can help people break through the upper limit of their battle body aptitude.

The second is the Blood Jade Pill, with Beast King blood as the main ingredient, supplemented by 17 types of precious spiritual plants. Its function is the same as the Blood Origin Pill, accelerating the progress of reshaping the skin-membrane, but its efficacy is more than five times that of the former.

This third one is very special; it is called the Spirit Milk Pill. The main ingredient is a spiritual plant named the Holy Young Fruit, along with 8 other auxiliary materials. Its function is to replace the supplementary food currently used in the camp. If children from three to under six years old take one every month, it can slowly increase their strength without interfering with the growth of their internal organs!"

Hearing the efficacy of the third type, the Spirit Milk Pill, Xia Hong's eyes immediately lit up, and he asked, "Can the growth upper limit be calculated?"

Mu Dong bowed and said, "The pharmacists of the Harvesting Department have only made preliminary deductions. As long as they take it steadily before the age of six, they can at least be promoted to the Woodcutting Realm."

Hearing this, not only Xia Hong, but Xia Chuan beside him also felt a slight shock in his expression.

The growth upper limit of children taking pills must, of course, depend on their individual innate talent; this certainly cannot be accurately calculated for a time.

But the Harvesting Department had already given a judgment: at the very least, they could be promoted to the Woodcutting Realm.

That is not simple!

This means that from now on, as long as the children of Does Does Da Xia start taking the Spirit Milk Pill from the age of three, by the time they reach the age of six and gain the qualification to cultivate, their strength will at least be promoted to the Woodcutting Realm!

"Have you ever thought that perhaps one day in the future, everyone in our Does Does Da Xia will be able to cultivate, and even five or six-year-old children will have Woodcutting Realm strength?"

A question suddenly popped into Xia Chuan's mind. He then turned his head to look at Xia Hong at the head of the table, a trace of emotion appearing on his face.

This question was personally posed to him and Yuan Cheng ten years ago, when Xia Hong led them to finish killing the Wood Puppet Ghost and returned to the earth slope from the Luo Ge camp, preparing to change the meat-sharing rules.

At that time, his and Yuan Cheng's first reaction was to laugh, feeling in their hearts that Xia Hong was simply joking. For five or six-year-old children to have Woodcutting Realm cultivation—to them at that time, it was simply a fantasy.

Of course, there are Woodcutting Realm five or six-year-olds in Does Does Da Xia today; his son Xia Yu Zong is one of them, but they are a very small minority after all.

But from today on, with the Spirit Milk Pill, it is completely different.

No!

Xia Chuan soon realized that if they want all five or six-year-old children in Does Does Da Xia to possess Woodcutting Realm strength, there is still one very critical problem.

"Can this Spirit Milk Pill be mass-produced?"

Xia Hong had already asked it, so Xia Chuan naturally would not ask again, and hurriedly looked at Mu Dong with anticipation.

Mu Dong shook his head slightly and said, "This Holy Young Tree is one of the 24 spiritual plants the Lord discovered in the Flood Dragon Nest. When the Harvesting Department found it, there were only 29 ripe fruits on it. Supplemented with the other auxiliary materials, a total of 29 batches were refined, with each batch producing 8 Spirit Milk Pills, totaling 232 pills at present.

Cheng Feng deduced that the flowering and fruiting period of the Holy Young Tree is at least 10 years or more. Even if successfully transplanted back to the medicine field and ripened with coal stone and silver, it is estimated to take at least 7 years or more, and each harvest should be around 50 fruits..."

The Harvesting Department is now in contact with thousands of spiritual plants. Cheng Feng had long ago led the pharmacists to summarize a method for inferring the maturity cycle of spiritual plants, and the inferred years differ from the actual cycle by at most no more than one year.

Therefore, according to this deduction, the Spirit Milk Pill certainly cannot be mass-produced!

Xia Hong's expression was slightly disappointed. Even if all children aged 3 to 6 are promoted to Woodcutting Realm strength, it won't play much of a role for the camp at present, but looking at the long term, the role it plays would be too great.

That's true, such a precious thing—if it could be mass-produced, that would be incredible!

The first batch has 232 pills, and subsequently, 50 batches will be produced every seven years, totaling 400 pills, which can supply about 11 children. That is considered quite good. If more Holy Young Trees can be found later to increase the output, that would be even better.

"Continue!"

The output is too low, so Xia Hong temporarily lost much interest. He then turned his gaze to the fourth porcelain bottle. After a hint of speculation flashed in his eyes, his expression immediately became expectant.

"Among these four types of pills, the most precious is this fourth one!"

Mu Dong picked up the fourth porcelain bottle, opened it, and poured a spiritual pill glowing with strong light into his hand.

Not to mention the strong light, just the sudden rise in temperature in the hall the moment the spiritual pill appeared was enough to stir up surprise in the eyes of both Xia Hong and Xia Chuan.

"This is the Sun-Ascension Pill! The main ingredient is the 16 Heavenly Sun Fruits the Lord brought back from the White Tiger Pool, combined with 31 other auxiliary materials to refine. The powerful medicinal power it contains can not only accelerate the process of reshaping flesh and blood for the Cold-Resistance Realm, but can also ignore the obstruction of flesh and blood to penetrate into the bone body. Its function should be what the Lord mentioned before: tempering bones to help people break through to the Sun-Manifestation Realm."

Sun-Ascension Pill—Cheng Feng's naming style is just this simple and crude.

However, it is of no consequence!

Mu Dong first presented the porcelain bottle in his hand to Xia Hong, then continued: "The auxiliary medicinal materials needed to refine the Sun-Ascension Pill are not only vast in variety, but the difficulty of obtaining them is also extremely high. The Medicine Refining Pavilion has currently only refined 12 batches, with 3 pills per batch. The remaining 4 Heavenly Sun Fruits can only wait for the auxiliary materials to be gathered later before opening the furnace to refine."

"What is the natural maturity cycle of the Heavenly Sun Fruit?"

"Fifteen years!"

A natural cycle of fifteen years—even if transplanted into the Medicine Refining Pavilion's medicine field and ripened with resources, it would take at least ten years or more.

Xia Hong did not have much disappointment on his face this time. After all, it is a pill that can help people break through to the Sun-Manifestation Realm; mass production would be too whimsical.

36 pills are enough for the short term...

"In addition, this second item is also what Cheng Feng asked me to bring, which are the Soldier Food Pill, the Golden Body Pill, and the third, more bizarre, Soul-Loss Pill."

While Xia Hong was thinking, Mu Dong had already let the person behind him open the second tray and introduced the three pills inside:

The Soldier Food Pill was refined by imitating the Green Food Pill of the Great Awakening Temple last year. Its main ingredient is the flesh and blood of a type of aquatic cold beast in the Qinghe Pu waters. As the name suggests, its greatest function is to replace food to maintain the needs of the human body. A tiny one can last for a day's meal, making it most suitable as military rations.

The Golden Body Pill is a similar pill imitated by pharmacists after cracking the recipe for the Great Awakening Temple's Zen Gold Powder. Its function is to enhance the defense of soldiers, and the key is that it can also be mass-produced and equipped to soldiers on a large scale.

After hearing the introduction of the two pills, Xia Hong's eyes immediately lit up, especially the second one. As soon as Mu Dong's voice fell, he immediately asked, "How much defensive ability can this Golden Body Pill specifically increase? Has Cheng Feng tested it?"

Mu Dong immediately nodded and replied, "It has already been tested. Like the Sun-Shine Pill, the effect is about 30% weaker compared to the Great Awakening Temple's combination with chanting."

During the Great Awakening Temple chaos last year, just in terms of military strength, the Great Awakening Temple was actually far inferior to either Jiang Xia or Ba Shang, not to mention that Jiang Xia later brought in reinforcements from the Yang Qu and Dragon Valley towns. If it were a normal battle, even with the five Great Masters, the Great Awakening Temple could not have defeated Jiang Xia, let alone subsequently breaking through the Ba Shang town city.

The core reason why the Great Awakening Temple was invincible in both battles was that they could allow the army soldiers to obtain extraordinary abilities through taking pills and chanting. These were the Melt-Fire Pill and the Lankavatara Divine Mantra, Zen Gold Powder and the Six Paths Vajra Mantra, Clear Cold Bead and the Pure Water Divine Mantra, Origin Soul Pill and the Rebirth Mantra, including the last one that hadn't been used yet, the Quake-Space Pill.

Such important spiritual pills—once transmitted back to Xia City through Xiang Liang's hands, Xia Hong immediately had Cheng Feng lead the pharmacists to study them. After studying for more than half a year, results should naturally come out.

Similar to what Xia Hong guessed at the beginning, the Great Awakening Temple's act of collecting those six-year-old children was indeed harboring evil intentions. The main materials for these five spiritual pills were actually the newly formed internal organs of six-year-old children, namely the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.

Does Does Da Xia naturally could not learn from the Great Awakening Temple and use human internal organs to refine pills. Cheng Feng could only find a way from cold beasts. After using the internal organs of dozens of cold beasts and continuous testing, he finally found a substitute material for the Melt-Fire Pill and managed to produce the Sun-Shine Pill before the start of the Hong Gate Battle.

After the Great Awakening Temple soldiers took these five pills, they all had to chant under the leadership of the Bhikkhu to exert their effects. Does Does Da Xia did figure out the mantras, but they were completely ineffective when they chanted them themselves.

Without chanting, the efficacy of the Sun-Shine Pill decreased by 30%. The Great Awakening Temple's Melt-Fire Pill combined with chanting could allow people with cultivation below the Cold-Resistance Realm to be exposed to cold light for two hours, while the Sun-Shine Pill only lasts for less than an hour and a half.

Now that the Golden Body Pill has also decreased by 30%, it is not surprising.

According to the situation of the Hong Pass Battle, even if the efficacy of this Golden Body Pill decreases by 30%, the defensive ability of soldiers after taking it can still increase several times. If used well, it is definitely a great weapon that can tilt the balance of the battlefield at any time.

Xia Hong suppressed the excitement in his heart and finally set his gaze on the third one, which was the Soul-Loss Pill that Mu Dong just mentioned, his face full of curiosity.

Among the Great Awakening Temple's five methods, the only one that wasn't used was the Quake-Space Pill corresponding to Master Great Abyss. Xia Hong had seen the other four with his own eyes, and among them, one was not used to enhance the soldiers' abilities, but to kill people.

To be precise, it was soul extraction.

That was Master No-Life's Origin Soul Pill.

Over a million people, after taking the Origin Soul Pill and chanting the Rebirth Mantra, all their soul bodies were extracted to resurrect that Five-Headed Ghost-Faced Maitreya.

Cheng Feng actually even imitated the Origin Soul Pill and named it the Soul-Loss Pill. Xia Hong's face was first thoughtful, and then he looked at Mu Dong.

When Mu Dong introduced the Soul-Loss Pill just now, he added the description "a bit bizarre" at the beginning, so Cheng Feng should have told him the efficacy of this pill.

"This Soul-Loss Pill is indeed a bit bizarre. According to Cheng Feng, he found ten death-row prisoners in the dungeon to test the pill. Eight died on the spot, and only two woke up after an hour. Unfortunately, during the time those two were in a coma, it seemed they saw something very terrifying. We didn't even have time to ask questions before they went directly insane."

No wonder it's called the Soul-Loss Pill!

It seems they saw something very terrifying.

Xia Hong lowered his head and thought for a moment, poured out a cyan-green Soul-Loss Pill, and raised his hand, preparing to put it into his mouth.

"Big Brother, you..."

"Lord, absolutely not!"

"Hahahaha, I'm not that stupid, I'm just teasing you!"

Seeing Xia Chuan and Mu Dong both looking nervous and trying to dissuade him, Xia Hong couldn't help but laugh out loud, then put the pill back.

Seeing him put the pill back, Xia Chuan and Mu Dong both breathed a sigh of relief. Clearly, they had been badly frightened by Xia Hong's move just now.

"Notify Cheng Feng, next time he finds death-row prisoners to test the medicine, let Xu Ning watch from the side. He fused with Master No-Life's internal organs, so he should be able to see something."